The bottom line is clear: Our vital interests in Afghanistan are limited and military victory is not the key to achieving them. On the contrary, waging a lengthy counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan may well do more to aid Taliban recruiting than to dismantle the group, help spread conflict further into Pakistan, unify radical groups that might otherwise be quarreling amongst themselves, threaten the long-term health of the U.S. economy, and prevent the U.S. government from turning its full attention to other pressing problems. -- Afghanistan Study Group

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Baghdad:#1: The bombings began early with a car bomb and four roadside bombs exploding in quick succession near the federal police headquarters in southwest Baghdad, killing two and wounding 15 others, two Interior Ministry officials said.

First a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol. Then a minute later another roadside bomb went off in a commercial street followed by two roadside bombs hidden in a pile of garbage on a highway. Finally, a parked car bomb went off on a road that marks the intersection between Bayaa and the adjoining neighborhood. In total, five people were killed in Bayaa, including 2 policemen, and 15 people were injured, including six policemen, police and hospital officials said. They did not have a breakdown of where the deaths occurred

#2: That was followed by a car bomb that targeted the convoy of an Interior Ministry official in eastern Baghdad, killing one person and wounding five others, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

#3-4: Two roadside bombs struck near a hospital and an outdoor market in Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City, killing two and wounding 12, while an explosion wounded three in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of al-Saydiya, the two officials said.

#3: At about 7 a.m. a car bomb in a parking lot in eastern Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood exploded, injuring five people and damaging several nearby cars.

#4: Minutes later, also in Sadr City, a bomb hidden in a pile of garbage exploded, killing one person and wounding five more.

#5-6: Two more roadside bombs struck an Iraqi police patrol in central Baghdad, killing one and wounding 12, the officials said.

#7-9: At least eight more people were wounded in three separate blasts in Baghdad, the officials said.

#8: Deputy Director of Baghdad's Ammanat (Muncipality) escaped an assassination attempt by a sticky bomb in his car, west of Baghdad, according to security sources. The source informed Aswat al-Iraq that Mohammed Aziz Jabbar escaped the assassination attempt in his parked car, but his brother was hurt and hospitalized.

Taji:#1: A U.S. convoy on the outskirts of Baghdad, near Taji, was targeted by a car bomb, the officials said. When Iraqi police and soldiers arrived to investigate the blast, a suicide bomber standing blew himself up and killed seven Iraqi security members and wounded 10, the officials said.

“A booby-trapped car blew off against a U.S. Army patrol, close to northern Baghdad’s Taji district, causing an unspecified number of casualties among the American patrol and damaging a number of its vehicles, followed by an attack by a suicide bomber, wearing an explosive belt, after the arrival of a police force to the venue of the blast, killing 7 persons and

Kirkuk:#1: A guard in north Iraq’s Kirkuk city has been killed and his daughter injured in an attack by unknown gunmen west of the city on Saturday night, a Kirkuk police director said. “A group of unknown gunmen opened silencer-gun fire on Saturday night on Hassan Dawood, a guard in a plant in southwest Kirkuk’s Industrial district, killing him on the spot and wounding his daughter,” Kirkuk Police Director, Sarhad Qader told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: “A police patrol has found the corpse of an unknown person, south of Kirkuk, with bullet traces on the body,” Lt. Brigadier, Sarhad Qader told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"#1: Gunmen wearing police uniforms and suicide vests stormed a government building in eastern Afghanistan early Sunday, starting a running shootout with Afghan security forces who surrounded the compound, officials said. At least five people were killed in ongoing fighting. In Sunday's incident, four men armed with assault rifles and wearing explosives drove shortly before dawn into a compound that houses the provincial traffic department on the edge of Khost city, said provincial Police Chief Gen. Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai. Security forces stopped the men, who were wearing uniforms of the Afghan Border Police, only after becoming suspicious of the civilian station wagon they drove, he said. Guards opened fire on the attackers, but the men were able to kill a police officer and occupy the upper floors of the building, Ishaqzai said. The attackers shot down on Afghan security forces from their vantage point as a fire raged through the structure. Two of the attackers' suicide vests exploded during the fighting, though it was unclear whether they triggered the bombs or bullets caused them to detonate, Ishaqzai said. Security forces shot a third attacker to death, he said. Explosives found inside the attackers' station wagon were defused. Three police officers, one Afghan soldier and a civilian were killed in the attack, Ishaqzai said. Five police officers and one civilian were wounded. The gunbattle was still going on more than six hours later with the remaining gunman.

#2: Meanwhile, U.S. forces in southern Afghanistan shot a governor's spokesman in the foot Sunday as he arrived to work. Spokesman Zalmai Ayubi leaned on a cane as he spoke with reporters, his left foot bandaged. Ayubi said U.S. forces shot him as he arrived at the gate of the Kandahar governor's office for no reason. In a statement to the AP, NATO forces confirmed the shooting, saying Ayubi had grappled with a guard as he "attempted to physically bypass security" at the office. "In the ensuing altercation, the U.S. soldier's rifle was discharged, hitting the spokesman in the foot," NATO said.

#3: Also Sunday, two women were killed and five other people wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in the southern province of Zabul, the Afghan Interior Ministry said.

#4: Taliban insurgents killed three police and wounded four in an attack on a police outpost in the Obe district of western Herat province, said district police chief Sher Agha.

#5: Afghan troops killed four insurgents during a gun battle in the Zherai district of southern Kandahar province, the Defence Ministry said.

A U.S. diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks said financial support estimated at $100 million a year was making its way from those Gulf Arab states to a jihadist recruitment network in Pakistan's Punjab province, Dawn newspaper reported.

The November 2008 dispatch by Bryan Hunt, the then principal officer at the U.S. consulate in Lahore, was based on discussions with local government and non-governmental sources during trips to Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province.

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SUMMARY:

The US bombs Pakistan and kills children, thereby giving the population a reason to hate the USA.

The US is friends with Saudi Arabia and UAE and gives them "aid" in the form of grants to buy US weapons and military hardware. They allow these countries to suppress any movement towards democracy, because that would mean the leaders might be overthrow and the US would lose control - no more opportunity to subsidize the military-industrial complex, and no more money going to radical groups in Pakistan (which might impact the FOREVER WAR).

SA and UAE send money to people in Pakistan, who will use it to wage "jihad" on the US and any Pakistani organization seen as allied to the US, including becoming suicide bombers.

So, the US goes and buys more military hardware and goes in and bombs Pakistan again.

This is definitely a win for the military-industrial complex here in the USA, since they get to make and sell weapons over and over and over again.

And it clearly shows how stupid and immoral the American population is.